Today the press release went out along with photos of the installation photos. Covariance looks stunning and it's ready and waiting to receive visitors. The installation opens this Saturday 24th August. Have a look at the booking info for more details about visiting and the In Conversation events.

It's done! The 763 individual components of Covariance were safely delivered to the London Canal Museum on Monday and with Ben, Aaron and Annabel's help were installed by the end of Wednesday. The finished work is everything I had hoped for and more, it takes my breath away!

We've a busy week ahead of us - press engagements, staff training and readying ourselves for the first visitors. We open to the public on Saturday 24 August at 11am - see bookings info for further details.

Finished at last! The final discs were completed last week; the light boxes assembled this week and remaining brass links done yesterday. Covariance is now packed and residing in my lounge room, ready for the art transporters to take down to London.

The lighting was installed during the week. We've been very lucky to have ARUP Lighting as a sponsor and Alison, Dwayene, Paula and Guillermo from ARUP worked incredibly hard on Tuesday night to dig out the lighting channels - it looked like a cross between Ground Force and Time Team! The lights, which have been generously donated by a range of companies, were installed Wednesday. I gave myself the job of collecting and bagging the builder's rubble from the floor, very messy!

Covariance has been chosen as the name for this first artwork commissioned by the Institute of Physics in its Superposistion series which pairs physicists with artists.

The term covariance is itself mathematical but used in physics; it is the measure of the association between random mathematical variables. Put less technically, covariance is a measure of the degree to which a change in any number of unrelated things is unified when their environment changes around them.

Covariance is an apt name for the installation for many reasons. First it reflects the journey Lyndall and myself continue to take together, learning from each other and discovering new ideas. Secondly it speaks of the underlying symbiosis in the piece of the visualisation of experimental and design of particle physics detectors.

Most importantly, however, I feel are the links between the production and location of the installation and that of particle detectors around the World. Every aspect of the design, construction and installation of Covariance draws massive parallels between the design, construction and installation of a particle physics detector. Its home of the subterranean ice wells of the London Canal Museum also fits the homes of the massive detectors.

Come to the London Canal Museum to see for yourself; Covariance opens to the public at the end of this month, tickets and more info here.

The framework was installed last week and I'm thrilled with how it looks. It's a perfect fit with the industrial feel of the ice well - the contractors did a brilliant job. I've now finished the green and orange discs (yeah!), and am part way through the red ones - only 25 to go! That's not the end of it though, I've got 380 (plus a few extra) brass links to make to hang the discs from and then assemble the 3 light boxes.

Booking info

Information about booking to visit the installation and In Conversation events.

Covariance Brochure

Read about Covariance and find out more about the physics behind the artwork in the official brochure[PDF].

About

Superposition is a new artist-in-residence programme from the Institute of Physics which invites visual artists and physicists to work collaboratively to explore and contribute to the field of contemporary art.

This project blog allows you to follow artist Lyndall Phelps and physicist Ben Still as they work together to question and interpret current research in particle physics – resulting in the creation of a new artwork.